Formula One: Britain facing battle to stay in fast lane

No passing in Formula One? Surely the cars are overtaken by politics almost every weekend and next Sunday, which should be the most exciting Grand Prix of the season, Silverstone will throb with argument while engines scream.

There cannot be another sport so mired in discord. Bernie Ecclestone thinks the circuit is a tip, Martin Brundle has had a spat with former champions Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill, the little men of Minardi have been lashing out at the wealthier teams, Jordan have been in the High Court over a sponsorship claim and Sir Jackie Stewart's plea for Government help to save Silverstone from more abuse seems to have worked with Friday's £16 million injection.

Ticket sales for the British Grand Prix are down which is an enormous shame because the stage, whether you like the Northamptonshire track or not, is ready for an immense race. The overwhelming dominance of Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari has been dented.

The last two races have produced first and second places for Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya in the BMW-Williams so that the drivers' table has tightened to show Michael Schumacher still ahead on 64 points, with Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren-Mercedes) on 56, Ralf Schumacher 53 and Montoya 47.

The FW25 Williams has suddenly clicked, Ferrari are in reverse and McLaren are still waiting to introduce their new car. It should be a fascinating weekend of qualifying and racing.

Perhaps F1 followers should make the most of it because the future of Silverstone is on the line. Ecclestone calls the shots. He feels the £45 million invested after he severely criticised the place has not been properly used and, as he handed over £15 million from his own considerable pocket, he is entitled to take a penetrating look at events.

With Bahrain and China on next year's schedule at least one European race will follow Austria off the calendar and Silverstone has been vulnerable since the muddied fiasco of 2001 and, in Ecclestone's personal case, last year when his helicopter could not land and his car became lost on its way.

Silverstone is owned by the British Racing Drivers' Club, who lease the running of the Grand Prix to Octagon Motorsports. Brundle and Stewart have both been vigorous in trying to uphold some kind of reputation for the place.

They have overseen access and parking improvements but need more money. Brundle picked out Mansell and Hill, members themselves, who could do more, but Mansell points out that, in winning there on four occasions, he has done his share of promoting the circuit while Hill believes he should leave the club's officers to do the talking.

They all know that Ecclestone would remove the race from the calendar without blinking. The test of the organisation on Sunday will be severe and, although 40,000 people are employed in motorsport, many of them depending on the business of the seven F1 teams based in England, the old ringmaster has never been portrayed as a sympathetic soul.

Meanwhile, Minardi's voluble boss Paul Stoddart, who was threatening protests about being denied money from F1's 'fighting fund', has gone quiet in the sound belief that £2 million is heading in his direction.

At some point this week conversations may turn to qualifying and racing while deep in the garages and back home at the factory, the boffins of Ferrari, who were so dominant last year that they turned the season into a Schumacher-led procession, will be seeking answers to the runaway Williams.

They will be having intense conversations with their tyre supplier, Bridgestone, who seem to have been outsmarted by Michelin, who have have links with Williams, McLaren and the resurgent Renaults of Jarno Trulli and Fernando Alonso.

Bridgestone have been testing an entirely new tyre in Barcelona and imported a team of engineers from their Japanese base to try to find more speed for Ferrari.

Along the pit-wall there is the usual driver-transfer gossip with David Coulthard and Jacques Villeneuve commanding most of the attention. Since winning in Melbourne in the opening race, Coulthard has had four retirements and no podium finishes while his young team mate, Kimi Raikkonen, has had one win, four seconds and a third.

Coulthard has had problems adjusting to the one-lap qualifying system but team manager Ron Dennis maintains faith in him, though speculation about his future will continue as it will over Villeneuve at BAR.

Team boss David Richards says he will begin to think about next year's driver line-up after the British Grand Prix, but everyone knows he is unhappy at Villeneuve's high salary, negotiated before Richards arrived, and some modest performances in a poor car.